Thank you, John. To answer your question, the stage you are at depends somewhat on which staging tool your doc uses: GOLD, COPD Foundation or the ATS guidelines. The tools use both the FEV1 percentage, the number of exacerbations the patient has over the course of a year and the general functioning level of the patient to stage the patient. The staging tools were developed for docs, not for patients, and were really designed to give non-pulmonary docs some guidance on what types of medications and treatments were appropriate for which patients at various "stages" of the disease. So the answer to your question really depends a lot on your doc, which tool he uses, what he counts as an exacerbation and how much he knows about what you can and can't do.

The stages are Mild, Moderate, Severe and Very Severe on the Gold and the ATS guidelines. The Foundation uses three, ending with Severe. I like the Foundation's because I look better on it!

I certainly didn't mean to be unkind; I just wanted some clarification. If that seemed harsh, my apologies. Many pulmos do not give information about staging to patients. And COPD can be secondary to many different conditions, depending on the circumstances. Some examples are any number of heart conditions, pulmonary hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, just to name a few. I'm using secondary to as meaning "not as important as" at this moment.

Agree with Jean.....I should be classified as Stage 4 on the Gold Standard because of my PFT being 22%. Very Severe.....BUT because my functionability matches Stage 3 and not 4...i am listed as Severe....

The ironical thing also is there are people with much higher PFT's like 40% yet cannot function half as well as others much lower....

i have c o p d jean but also have chd diabetes but was defo meaning 2nd stage c o p d ,never thought anything you said was unkind jean x

John...............lets see if I can be kinder. When you see your specialist he will show you a spectrum and where you are on it in relation to your COPD.I have never heard COPD in relationship to secondary unless you have in in conjunction with asthma like me.